


Free Falling

by BarPurple



Series: Frederick St Offices [1]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: A Monthly Rumbelling, F/M, Fluff, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-05
Updated: 2017-11-05
Packaged: 2019-01-30 01:38:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12643509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BarPurple/pseuds/BarPurple
Summary: Having to work late on a Friday night was not Belle's idea of fun, until it was.





	Free Falling

Belle ambled along with the morning rush hour crowd as they left the train station, there was no point trying to walk quickly with this many people crowded together. By the time she reached Victoria Square the crowd had thinned enough for her to pick up her pace and hurry along to the Jewellery Quarter, with a quick detour by the library to slip her books into the return slot. She made it to Frederick Street with twenty minutes to spare before work started, just enough time to trudge up the three flights of stairs and pop the kettle on before she was due to start answering the phones.

Like most of the buildings in the Jewellery Quarter her office was an old former Victorian factory, (according to her research they used to make pins here). It was pretty enough from the outside, but the layout inside was not the most practical. The three flights of stairs were steep and there was no way for a elevator to be installed, because of the preservation order on the structure. The ground floor had no natural light at all, and was rented solely as storage, but there was an underground garage for the lucky few who had parking permits. Belle was far too junior in her company to even be considered for one of the precious few allocated to them. The second floor featured a large central area that went all the way up to the glass roof. This sort of indoor courtyard provided the offices on that floor with light and gave everyone in the building somewhere nice-ish to eat lunch. The third floor covered the four edges of the space under the roof, which meant that is was freezing in winter and baking hot in summer with nothing in between.

Belle puffed a stray lock of hair off her face as she got to the top to the last flight of stairs, she was definitely getting fitter. By lunchtime Belle was willing to trade any fitness benefits for a boat-load more patience. She’d had three customers call to complain this morning that the order they placed yesterday hadn’t been delivered yet; honestly there were only so many polite ways she could explain that ‘same day dispatch’ did not mean ‘same day delivery’. She’d earned a good, strong cuppa, but before she reached the little kitchen Katie caught her arm.

“Look. Gold is on the warpath again.”

The small clothing company that Belle worked for covered two sides of the square, across the courtyard the rest of the building was occupied by Gold and Son, a legal firm. The offices of each were visible from the other most of the time since nobody bothered to draw the binds and shut out the only natural light they got. Mr Gold was known as something of a perfectionist, and his frequent fits of temper provided something of a show for the staff in Belle’s office.

“Come for lunch, Katie.”

“Hum? Oh no, I want to see what happens.”

Belle swallowed her sigh and walked away. She always felt awkward listening to Mr Gold shout, she didn’t get the same thrill out of it as her colleagues, nor did she always hold to the general feeling that Gold was just a picky bastard who like to throw his weight around. She’d noticed a pattern to Gold’s outbursts, the cocky, sloppy workers who were happy to do a slapdash job got yelled at; people who had made an honest mistake where called into his office and gently talked to. The gentle talks didn’t draw the same attention as the shouting, so nobody she worked with paid them any notice.

She was half-way down the stairs having decided to pop across to the café for lunch when the subject of Gold’s temper thundered by her almost knocking her flying. The man didn’t stop, or even throw an apology over his shoulder, he was far too busy muttering something about stupid shellfish. Belle sighed to herself and carrying on down the stairs.

Feeling much better after lunch she was ready to face anything the afternoon threw at her, at least she thought she was until she got back to the office to find that Penny was waiting by her desk.

“Oh, there you are. The newsletter needs to go out this evening, can you get that done, please.”

Belle frowned, the newsletter was Penny’s job, but she was always shirking it off on to the other staff. Seeing her hesitate Penny leapt in with, “I knew you wouldn’t mind, thanks Belle.”

“Penny, wait.”

The phone on Belle’s desk started ringing and Penny gave it a pointed look; “Don’t keep the customer waiting. I’ll e-mail the products that need to go into the newsletter.”

With that Penny was gone, Belle took a fast breath and picked up the phone; “Good afternoon, Clothing For You, how can I help you?”

Much to Belle annoyance Penny left the office early after emailing her the barest bones of the weekly newsletter. Thanks to a glitch on the website Belle had been answering calls non-stop as customers tried to place their orders. At half past five, quitting time, her boss Chuck wandered out of his office and helped himself to one of the sweets from the jar on her desk.

“Penny mentioned that you wanted to try your hand at the newsletter this week, Belle, how’s it coming?”

Belle was going to strangle Penny for throwing her under the bus like that.

“I haven’t had a chance to start it yet because of the website glitch the phone’s been ringing off the hook.”

Chuck sighed, “It’s got to go out tonight Belle,” – he fished a set of keys from his pocket and dropped them on her desk, - “Lock up once you are done, please.”

She watched him walk away in a state of mild shock. She was now stuck doing somebody else’s work, after hours on a Friday night. Fan-fucking-tastic. Right, she could do this, but if she was going to do this she was going to play the Forbidden Music. The office radio was always tuned to a pop station, which had driven Belle crazy until she’d learned to ignore it, but since she was the only one in the bloody office no one could complain if she listened to classic rock. It took her no time at all to retune the ancient radio to her favourite station, and ture it up a few notches as Poison sang about cowboys and sad, sad songs.

Gold found his foot tapping and couldn’t work out why for a moment. He was the only one left in the office and had been absorbed in correcting the sub-clauses of some documents. Now he was paying attention to his surroundings again he became aware of music, and not the normal pop rubbish that got played by his staff. That was Tom Petty, wow, he’d not heard this one outside of his own home in ages. He stood up from his desk and wandered out into the main office to look for the source to the music, it certainly wasn’t coming from this office. He grinned as he looked across the other side of the building, in the office there was a young lady was dancing around to Tom Petty. She glanced across towards him and suddenly gave a shriek before falling over. He started forward as if he could do anything at this distance, and breathed a sigh of relief as she jumped to her feet with a nervous grin. She gave him a thumbs-up and darted away. She must have gone to the radio because the music dropped in volume. His office was suddenly very quiet. He stood for a moment tapping his thumb against his fingers and then came to a decision.

Belle was groaning to herself. Not only had she disturbed Mr Gold with her music, he’d caught her dancing and seen her prat fall. This was going down as a truly crappy Friday night, but on the plus side the newsletter was finished and as soon as she hit send she could go home. A tap at the office door made her jump.

“Hey there, sorry didn’t mean to startle you again.”

Belle blinked at Mr Gold standing in the doorway.

“I’m sorry about the music, I didn’t know anyone else was working late.”

He gave her a warm smile, “It was nice to hear good music in this building. I’m sorry I scared you, are you alright?”

She unconsciously rubbed the elbow she had banged off the floor and nodded, “I’m fine thank you.”

He jerked a thumb towards the kitchen that their companies shared; “I was about to put the kettle on, can I make you a cuppa?”

“I’ve just finished for the night.”

His face fell just a touch, but he recovered quickly. Before he could say anything else Belle quickly babbled out; “We could go and get something stronger than tea, if you’d like, and if you’re not still working I mean…”

He glanced at his watch and then smiled at her; “I think we’ve both earned a beer,” – he edged into the office and offered her his hand, “Aiden Gold.”

Belle jumped up from her desk and hurried across the room to shake his hand, but she tripped over a loose carpet tile and landed in his arms instead. She raised her head from his chest and gave him a weak smile; “Hi, I’m Belle French and I’m a total Klutz.”

He chuckled as he set her carefully back on her feet and gave the offending square of carpet a hard look; “That was defiantly the carpet’s fault. I know a good lawyer if you want to sue.”

“Tempting, but I think I just want to get out of her and get my hands on a tall cold drink.”

“I know a good lawyer who can help with that too. I’ll, erm, just go and lock up and then we can head out?”

“Sure thing.”

Belle took her time to avoid any tripping over again as she closed down her computer and got her coat. Across the building she saw Aiden doing the same thing, and smiled to herself. Maybe this wasn’t the worst Friday night she’d ever had after all.


End file.
